Cast of nine
John Clare ages from thirties to fifties during play. A poet who suffers from delusions
that he is a bare knuckled boxer,
the poet Byron and that he has two wives.
Patsy. his common law wife who dreams of being able to read and by end of play has become the village school teacher.
Lady Radstock. Patron of and in love with Clare she also is mentally fragile and joins Clare in the Asylum.
Lord Radstock. Her husband and patron of Clare. Religious and indifferent to the enclosures that so affect Clare.
Dr Allen. Asylum doctor who is aware of Clare’s talent and sympathetic to his problems. He is an advocate of phrenology.
Dr Trumble. Irish doctor opposed to Allen’s methods.
Two Gamekeepers
Joe. Gypsy leader who teaches Clare the fiddle and is the catalyst for the final madness of Clare
Gypsies.
Excerpt page 12
Dr Allen. Patsy… he is a unique man.
Patsy. Unique?
Dr Allen. Unusual… different
His mind doesn’t work like other men’s.
He needs… you must continue to protect him.
Patsy. From her?
Dr Allen. From… his alienation
Patsy. Another of your magic words
Dr Allen. It means harmful separation from.. things.. people that belong together.
Patsy. You mean he belongs to me?
Dr Allen. To you, to us.. to the language of our land
His words are… Magical.
Patsy. Are his words… the right ones?
Dr Allen. His words jolt the heart.
Excerpt page 16
Clare. Words falling… spilling…. Everywhere
I want to pick them up but they slip..
Trickle through my fingers
Pause.
They lie on the ground… and then.. blow away.
Loss… lost… my words are lost in a mazeland.
Pause.
Dr Allen. Come and look at the head John
Clare goes and joins the doctor and both place their hands on the head.
Clare. Is the shape of our heads.. the cause of our madness Doctor?
Dr Allen. Some claim craniology to be the new Gospel
Clare. Bumpology… the current cant of London town.
Dr Allen. Put the cerebral house in order they say, and society will be reborn.
Clare. In the territory of the head?
Dr Allen. Can the mind be elevated over the emotions?
Clare. Sin in the head? Might stop us strangling our souls….
All this…. Difference.
Can’t we all dine at the same table?
Dr Allen. Society can only operate through a hierarchy.
Clare puts his hands around the neck of the head.
Clare. Then the landowners must hang from the oak trees.
Dr Allen. John!… radical talk frightens the authorities.
Clare. They fear the fearless.
Dr Allen. There are no rewards in insurrection.
The blood is soon sluiced away.